Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Argentine National Anthem to be Sung by Gonzalo Camacho´s Partner

Gonzalo Camacho will not play for Argentina against England this weekend but he will be at the venue not only in support of his country but also his partner. Josefina Achaval is to sing the Argentine national anthem at Twickenham on Saturday.

Achaval has previously performed at South American events including the ATP Tennis Finals and was a participant in the Operacion Triumfo, a reality show singing competition. She also has a degree in Business Management and has previously performed at events in England but this Satutrday´s match will be a breakthrough in her career. In addition to singing the Argentine national anthem she has been entrusted with performing the French national anthem too as England will fave France in a womens international prior to mens test match.

Camacho is yet to return to the field after injurying his shoulder in the Hamilton test match against New Zealand during the Rugby Championship. In his place Santiago Phelan used Lucas González Amorosino and Horacio Agulla on the right wnig but neither player was able t have the same impact. Like Camacho both players have a connection to the Leicester Tigers as Agulla played there before joining Bath while González Amorosino began his professional career at the club before heading to Montpellier.

Daniel Hourcade is yet to confirm his starting lineup but both Agulla and González Amorosino are in contention for the right wing position. Others are Joaquín Tuculet and Santiago Cordero but, in both cases, their natural position, like González Amorosino, is fullback. Hourcade named Juan Manuel Leguizamón as his captain yesterday to replace the injured Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe. Also injured are Camacho, Juan Martín Hernández, Juan Figallo and the latest casualty is Agustín Creevy who injured his knee on Friday and underwent surgery on Monday ruling him out of rugby for three months.

The last time the teams met at Twickenham the anthem was performed by Martin Toal. The match was in 2009 and Argentina was ravaged by injuries. Missing was captain Felipe Contepomi in addition to Marcelo Bosch, Hernández, Camacho González Amorosino and Leguizamón. The result was test starts for a number of amateur players at the time including Santiago Fernández, Martín Rodríguez Gurruchaga, Tomás Leonardí and the lesser known Mauro Comuzzi and Alfredo Abadie.

Leicester is certain to have a number of players involved even without Camacho playing. Both Marcos Ayerza and Pablo Matera are expceted to start in the forwards for Argentina while Dan Cole may well prop against Ayerza and all of Toby Flood, Geoff Parling, Ben Youngs and Tom Youngs are also in the squad. Argentina is also likely to have other English based players involved such as Horacio Agulla, Marcelo Bosch, Mariano Galarza, Eusebio Guiñazú and Juan Pablo Orlandi.